Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA engineers wrapped up a development round of drop tests for the Orion capsule’s parachute recovery system on Wednesday. NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel expressed safety concerns for NASA’s deep space exploration plans in an annual report released Wednesday. NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno mission becomes a solar-powered pace setter. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detects more evidence of dried stream beds on the now cold, arid red planet. Europe’s Rosetta mission spacecraft confirms the presence of water ice on distant comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Scientists spot trace remnants of the earliest stars. NASA tours its collection of Mars meteorites, moon rocks and other extraterrestrial samples. The U.S. Air Force looks to Orbital ATK and SpaceX for propulsion technologies to replace imports of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engines. Georgia legislators ponder spaceport legislation.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA wraps up Orion parachute tests
Spaceflight Insider (1/14): The parachute descent system for NASA’s Orion crew exploration capsule completed the seventh and final drop in a series of tests at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Dropped from a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport flying at 30,000 feet, a capsule test article enabled engineers to evaluate new lighter weight suspension lines. The series of drops will lead to a series of modifications and a new round of qualification drop tests. The first of eight drops in the new series of flight tests could begin in July.
NASA safety panel worries about schedule pressure on exploration programs
Space News (1/13): In its annual report for 2016, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) expresses concerns that schedule and funding constraints could jeopardize mission safety in the future. Special concerns were focused on the pillars of NASA’s future human deep space aspirations, the Space Launch System exploration rocket and the Orion crew exploration capsule. NASA is striving to reach Mars with astronauts in the 2030s. Though more supportive of NASA’s efforts to underwrite development of commercial systems to transport astronauts to the International Space Station, the ASAP also expressed concerns that plans for test flights by 2017 may face delays.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA’s Jupiter orbiter breaks solar-powered distance record
Orlando Sentinel (1/13): NASA’s Juno mission spacecraft is on course to maneuver into orbit around Jupiter on July 4. However, the solar-powered mission has already achieved a first: no spacecraft has gone so far on solar power. The rendezvous will place Juno in orbit around the solar system’s largest planet for studies of the atmosphere and core.
This is an ancient meandering river … on Mars
Space.com (1/13): The eagle-eyed HiRise camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected dried river beds, more evidence that the red planet was once warmer and wetter and the host of potentially habitable environments.
Water ice found on Rosetta’s comet
Discovery.com (1/13): The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission detected water ice on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft, which later dispatched a lander to the surface of the comet, reached Comet 67P in August 2014 for a swing around the sun. The ice findings were published by scientists in the journal Nature.
Traces of the first stars in the universe possibly found
Space.com (1/13): U.S. and Australian astronomers say they may have spotted remnants from the earliest stars in a cosmic gas cloud generated 1.8 billion years after the big bang. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chili, they detected only trace amounts of constituents heavier than hydrogen and helium, the elements that comprised first-generation stars. Scientists date the big bang to 13.8 billion years ago. The findings were presented before the American Astronomical Society last week.
Inside the vault: A rare glimpse of NASA’s otherworldly treasures
Ars Technica (1/13): The science publication tours the laboratory that houses NASA’s collection of lunar samples, Mars meteorites and bits of materials gathered from the solar wind, comets and distant stars.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Orbital ATK, SpaceX win Air Force propulsion contracts
Space News (1/13): The U.S. Air Force reports plans to spend $241 million with Orbital ATK and SpaceX for technologies that could help to end U.S. reliance on the import of Russian RD-180 rocket engines for launchings of U.S. national security payloads.
Legislation proposed to boost Camden County’s chance at spaceport
Atlanta Journal Constitution (1/13): A Georgia lawmaker has introduced state legislation that would limit liabilities to launch service providers using a George spaceport, while restricting local governments from imposing noise restrictions. In Georgia, the measures would boost Camden County’s chances of participating in the growing commercial space industry, according to State Rep. Jason Spencer.